Imagine the world we could create together if feminist movements were abundantly resourced. In our new report, Toward A Feminist Funding Ecosystem, we explore what it would take to make this a reality.
This report is both a framework and a practical guide for funders and activists who believe we can move toward a balanced ecosystem in which:
...feminist movements – particularly in the Global South – are at the center and equal partners in the political project for global gender justice. Funders themselves see and understand their role within the ecosystem and are able to pull the levers of change so that the clear majority of their funding commitments toward gender justice and women’s rights are going to movements directly.
Read on to see “who is who” in the feminist funding ecosystem and what power different actors hold.
See where the ecosystem is now (spoiler alert: it’s not good) and join us in a journey to create a transformative funding ecosystem for feminist social change.
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Check out our recommendations
(In the report, you’ll find expanded ideas about how to take up the recommendations below, plus additional recommendations specific to different funding sectors.)
What we can do as activists
- Claim your own power in your funder relationships
- Get informed about how money moves
- Advocate for resourcing that meets your needs
- Identify where you can shift power
- Push back on funders (read the report to see how!)
- Ask your funders to connect you with spaces you want to access
- Encourage and support funders’ own advocacy
- Do not shy away from showing your intersectional organizing
- Value your contributions of money, time, and knowledge
- Call out contradictions in the funding ecosystem
- Continue your bold and brave organizing! This ecosystem wouldn’t exist without you.
Recommendations for funders
- Identify what levers of change you are near – and pull them!
- Increase direct support for feminist movements, particularly in the Global South
- Break down silos to support more cross-movement work
- Distinguish and track direct funding to feminist movements (versus general “gender” funding)
- Rigorously align your investments, grantmaking, and policies with feminist and social justice values
- Become an advocate
- Be accountable to feminist movements
- Remain critical and curious about private financing
- Support long-term transformative social change to move public money back into the hands of the public
Take action!
Share the report!
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Print out the infographics and pin it somewhere visible, as inspiration – Visualise what is possible!
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Use the findings or visuals in your own resourcing advocacy
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Follow the money: use the four categories of funding to push for DIRECT funding to movements
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Most importantly, see what YOU can do to build a more just and transformative funding ecosystem.
Content
- Toward a feminist funding ecosystem
- Starting with power
- The “Who and How” of the Feminist Funding Ecosystem
- Dynamics of the current ecosystem
- Toward a Balanced Ecosystem
- Recommendations